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Diamond HD 4770 Review

Closer Look:

We all love installing drivers. That is, of course, only if they're actually painless. My ideal driver installation would go something like this: I place the CD into my optical drive. After doing so, I close my optical drive. Then instantly the drivers are installed, without me having to click on any prompts. However, I don't expect to ever encounter drivers that are this painless, at least in the near future.

Diamond's 4770 driver installation started off perfectly painless. The first AutoRun page presented me with five options: Install Software, Read Documentation, Visit Website, Browse CD-ROM, and Exit. You do need to click on Install Software in order to get to the next screen, but Diamond did include transitions in between the two screens. These transitions are much like those you'd find in a PowerPoint presentation, and surprisingly enough, they actually made the transition go smoother. The installation screen presents you with a whopping nine options: Windows XP 32-Bit, Windows Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista 64-Bit, Windows XP 32-bit 4770 Series ONLY, Windows Vista 32-Bit 4770 Series ONLY, Windows XP 64-Bit 4770 Series ONLY, Windows Vista 64-Bit 4770 Series ONLY, and Back To Previous Page. This was confusing to me as well, so I selected Windows Vista 64-Bit. This takes you to another install screen with seven options: Install Drivers, Install Adobe Reader, Support, Live Chat, Register Your Product, EXIT, and Back to Previous Page.

Clicking "Install Drivers" will bring you to the dreaded "Next" screen. From here, you'll need to click "Next" and then directly afterword click "Install." Before you can actually install anything, you'll need to choose between "Express" and "Custom" settings. Once you've made your decision, you may click "Next" again, and then agree to the terms and conditions. Once the drivers have finished installing, you'll need to click "Finish." Sadly, this is not where the quest to install drivers ended for me. Windows would not recognize the 4770 until after I had installed the drivers via the "Windows Vista 64-Bit 4770 Series ONLY!" option. As soon as I did that, everything worked fine. However, up until that point, installing the 4770's drivers wasn't all that bad.

The only program that came included with Diamond's 4770 was Adobe Reader. As such, I will not show you what Adobe Reader looks like, because it really isn't anything you've never seen before...at least I hope. Let's check out the CCC!!!